Abstract

We present a new approach for recognizing the make and model of a car from a single image. While most previous methods are restricted to fixed or limited viewpoints, our system is able to verify a car's make and model from an arbitrary view. Our model consists of 3D space curves obtained by backprojecting image curves onto silhouette-based visual hulls and then refining them using three-view curve matching. We also build an appearance model of taillights which is used as an additional cue. Our approach is able to verify the exact make and model of a car over a wide range of viewpoints and background clutter.

This technical report describes research done during Edward Hsiao's summer internship at Microsoft Research in 2011 and was authored during the fall of 2011. A conference version of this work, presented at WACV 2014 [Ramnath et al., WACV 2014], contains newer pose estimation techniques and updated experimental results, but not some of the appearance-based matching described in this report. The two appendices in this report are new and provide additional details on the pose estimation component and additional experimental results relating to [Ramnath et al., WACV 2014].